Amplified:
Blessed and happy and enviably fortunate and spiritually prosperous
(in the state in which the born-again child of God enjoys and finds
satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of his outward
conditions) are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake
(for being and doing right), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! (Amplified
Bible - Lockman)KJV: Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. NLT: God blesses those who are persecuted because they live
for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. (NLT
- Tyndale House)Philips: "Happy are those who have suffered persecution for
the cause of goodness, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs! (New
Testament in Modern English) Wuest: Spiritually prosperous are those who have been
persecuted on account of righteousness, because theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. (Wuest:
Expanded Translation: Eerdmans)

Young'sLiteral:
'Happy those persecuted for righteousness' sake -- because theirs is
the reign of the heavens.

George F. MacLeod - “The greatest criticism of the church
today is that no one wants to persecute it because there is nothing very
much to persecute it about” (Leadership)

Vance Havnerquipped
that "One of our biggest
problems today is that most of our church people have never really made
up their minds to follow Jesus Christ. They are like Mr.
Looking‑both‑ways in Pilgrim's Progress, or like Lot's wife looking back
toward Sodom. They are like the man in the Civil War who wore a blue
coat and gray trousers, and was shot at from both sides. They are like a
donkey between two bales of hay‑undecided as to which to eat. They are
like the son in our Lord's parable who said, I go, Sir" (Mt 22:30), and
went not. They receive the word with joy, but have no root nor depth and
soon fall away. They never really make up their minds, and are like the
man who was asked, "Do you have trouble making decisions?" He replied,
"Yes and no."

Now that we have described the
character of the true believers, the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
we observe next the conflict that these citizens experience in this
present world. At first glance, it may seem odd that peacemakers who are
poor in spirit, who mourn, who are meek, etc, would be persecuted. What
we must remember however, lest we be discouraged when conflict comes, is
that we have been transferred from the kingdom of darknessto
the kingdom of light.
Paul explains it this way as he prays for believers to be...

joyously giving thanks to
the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the
saints in light. For
He delivered us from the domain (right and might) of darkness,
and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (see notesColossians
1:13; 1:14)

THE SERMON ON THE
MOUNT
An Outline

Chapter

Subject

Mt 5:3-9

Character

Mt 5:10-12

Conflict

Mt 5:13-7:27

Conduct

Charles Simeon - CHRISTIANITY, to one who is not
acquainted with its real nature, must appear full of paradoxes. In the
preceding verses, we are informed what practical religion is; and, in
the parallel passage in St. Luke’s Gospel, we have the same truths yet
more plainly and explicitly declared (Lk 6:20-26)﻿﻿. Had any uninspired person avowed such sentiments, we should have
been ready to pronounce him mad: for there is scarcely any thing which
we regard with dread, but a blessing is annexed to it; or any thing
which we consider as desirable, but a woe is denounced against it: the
poor, the hungry, the weeping, the despised, are congratulated; and the
rich, the full, the laughing, and the honored, are represented as in a
truly pitiable condition. But perhaps the greatest paradox of all is,
that persons possessed of vital Christianity should be objects of
persecution; that their piety should be the ground of that persecution;
and that they should, on this very account, be esteemed happy. But so it
is: and so it will appear (Read the entire sermon - Matthew
5:10-12 Persecution for Righteousness' Sake)

Blessed (see makarios)
spiritually prosperous, independent of one's circumstances, including
even persecution! Talk about a paradox to the natural mind (cf 1Cor
2:14).

This is the blessing that we would
rather not partake of. It 's the blessing no one really wants. But in
some ways it is the most striking beatitude for it is the last, the
longest, the only one associated with a command, the only one repeated
by Jesus and the only one address directly to the reader (in Mt 5:11 He
switches from the third person pronoun "those" to the second person
pronoun "you").

Sinclair Ferguson has
an interesting comment regarding persecution writing that

Is this the reverse of what we would
expect? Men and women who are poor in spirit, mourn for their sin, live
lives of gracious meekness, long for God's righteousness, show mercy to
others, are pure in heart, and seek peace between God and man – would
such people not be welcomed with open arms? After all, these are the
very men and women the world needs! The world in which we live assumes
that it will welcome Christians with open arms – until the first time it
meets the genuine article. Until then, it is ignorant of its real
response to the gospel. It assumes that it is well-disposed to Jesus
Christ and to God. (Ferguson,
Sinclair: Sermon on the Mount :Banner of Truth)

When the beatitudes make up our
character, the character of citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we as
true believers will be persecuted for walking the radical, "narrow way"
that leads to life, in marked contrast to the broad way that leads to
destruction. (cf notesMatthew
7:13; 7:14)

Alexander Maclaren notes
that...

antagonism is inevitable between a
true Christian and the world. Take the character as it is sketched in
verses preceding. Point by point it is alien from the sympathies and
habits of irreligious men. The principles are different, the practices
are different.

A true Christian ought to be a
standing rebuke to the world, an incarnate conscience.

There are but two ways of ending that antagonism: either by bringing the
world up to Christian character, or letting Christian character down to
the world...

As to practice — a righteous life
will not make a man ‘popular.’ And as for ‘opinions’ — earnest religious
opinions of any sort are distasteful. Not the profession of them, but
the reality of them — especially those which seem in any way new or
strange — make the average man angrily intolerant of an earnest
Christianity which takes its creed seriously and insists on testing
conventional life by it. Indolence, self-complacency, and inborn
conservatism join forces in resenting the presence of such inconvenient
enthusiasts, who upset everything and want to ‘ turn the world upside
down...

It is especially important for
Christians who are newly born into the faith to grasp the reality of
persecution early so that they do not become discouraged or
disillusioned when they are unexpectedly "blind-sided" by harsh words,
insults, rejection, etc. because they are being "radical" with this
"Jesus religion".

Persecuted(1377)
(diokofrom dío =
pursue, prosecute, persecute) means to follow or press hard after,
literally to pursue as one does a fleeing enemy. It means to chase,
harass, vex and pressure and was used for chasing
down criminals. Dioko speaks of an intensity of effort leading to a
pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to lay hold of and
oppress or harass the "blessed".

Persecuted (with
repeated acts of enmity - thoughts, words, deeds) is in the passive
voice which means
that believers as the subject of the verb will receive the persecution
from an external source. The perfect
tenseis
used which indicates a fixed
attitude of the persecutors. It won't ever change unless they are
changed (from inside out, cf Acts 26:18, 2Cor 5:17). Persecutors of the
"sons of God" is their permanent
condition. Jesus explained the root problem in John 3 declaring "that the light is come into the world
(cf Jesus = John 8:12, His disciples = see note Matthew
5:16), and men loved the
darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil for everyone
who does evil hates the
light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed"
(John 3:19-20)

Bruce commenting on Matthew's use of the perfect tense
that it is saying "the persecuted are not merely men who have
passed through a certain experience, but men who bear abiding traces
of it in their character. They are marked men, and bear the stamp of
trial on their faces. It arrests the notice of the passer-by: commands
his respect, and prompts the question, Who and whence? They are veteran
soldiers of righteousness with an unmistakable air of dignity, serenity,
and buoyancy about them. (Expositor's
Greek Testament)

What does Jesus say light does to
the deeds of men who love darkness? His light in you and through you
dear citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven will expose the
evil nature of their deeds! When His "righteousness" lights up your
life...look out!...duck!...you will be persecuted by the "light haters".
But remember the truth that
you are blessed, even when you don't feel very
blessed! Feelings can be and often are deceiving in the spiritual realm.
Take your stand on the Truth of God's Word (see the passages below,
especially if you are currently undergoing suffering for His Name's
sake...if you're not now, you probably soon will be if you truly belong
to Him!)

The persecution can
be twofold involving on one hand a physical pursuing of the persecuted,
and/or a personal attack with words as in the form of slander (insults,
slander, hatred, spurn your name = cast it out, ostracism).

You might think well naturally the
world will persecute me. I'm light. They are darkness (Eph 5:8-note)
and therefore they hate me because the Light in me exposes their evil
deeds (cf John 3:19, 20, 21). Of course, that is true but some are
caught off guard when they are persecuted by others in the church. Not
everyone in the church is a genuine believer (Mt 7:21, 22, 23-see notesMt
7:21; 22; 23)
but are professors. When they encounter a real, radical convert of
Christ, they are taken aback and this sets the scene for persecution in
one form or another. And although it can be very subtle by religious
folk, it is still very painful. Think about who were the most persistent
persecutors of our Lord...the religious community, those who knew a lot
of Bible knowledge but did not know the Truth Himself. Times may have
changed but have men's hearts? (Jer 17:9) Why are we so surprised that
the most vicious attacks will come from those who are in the same
church? Who were the first persecutors of the new born church in
Jerusalem? Was it not the religious folk again. They are the very Jews
who Jesus had presented Himself to as King but they would not have Him.
I am not calling for you to be inappropriately judgmental but to be wise
as serpents and as innocent as doves. One qualifying note is in order.
If you are persecuted by the religious folks in your church, do a
careful inventory of your heart, your methods and your motives to make
sure that the persecution you are experiencing is for the sake of
righteousness, for the sake of His Name.

Lloyd-Jones speaks
to the persecution of genuine believers by others in the church
noting...

How they (are) persecuted by nominal,
religious people! That was also the story of the Puritan Fathers. This
is the teaching of the Bible, and it has been substantiated by the
history of the Church, that the persecution may come, not from the
outside but from within. There are ideas of Christianity far removed
from the New Testament which are held by many and which cause them to
persecute those who are trying in sincerity and truth to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ along the narrow way. You may well find it in your own
personal experience. I have often been told by converts that they get
much more opposition from supposedly Christian people than they do from
the man of the world outside, who is often glad to see them changed and
wants to know something about it. Formal Christianity is often the
greatest enemy of the pure faith. (Lloyd-Jones,
D. M.Studies
in the Sermon on the Mount)

Alexander Maclaren elaborates
on the persecution manifest by...

The curled lip, the civil scorn, the
alienation of some whose good opinion we would fain have, or, if we
stand in some public position, slandere press, and
the contumacious epithets, are trivial but very real tokens of dislike.
We have the assassin’s tongue instead of the assassin’s dagger. But yet
such things may call for as much heroism as braving a rack, and the
spirit that shoots out the tongue may be as bad as the spirit that
yelled, ‘Christianos ad leones.’ (Christians to the lions) (Matthew
5:10 The Eighth Beatitude)

For the sake of (1752)
(heneka) is an adverb which means "on account of" or "because
of". Why are the "sons of God" harassed, etc? Because of "righteousness",
which is ultimately God's righteousness shining
forth in and through His "children". It is Christ in you the hope
of glory (Col 1:27-note).
It's like Cain killing Abel for the sake of his righteous sacrifice
(Genesis 4). It is like David falsely accused and chased after by King
Saul. Or Daniel being thrown in jail for praying to His Lord. And the
list goes on and on. If it happened to them, it will happen to you.

It is not suffering for conscience﻿’
sake, for convictions﻿’ sake or because of the ordinary troubles of
life, “﻿for My sake.﻿” Note it does not say you will be persecuted
because you are obnoxious, offensive, are inappropriately radical or
overzealous, etc. Be careful not to bring unnecessary suffering upon
yourselves, for this is not pleasing to your Father in heaven and
receives no commendation.

Williams translates
it "for being and doing right"
(see also the Amplified Version above)

Jesus does not say because of rude,
offensive, obnoxious, crude, law breaking or lazy (including that which
sadly can be seen in Christians) behavior. Such behavior deserves the
consequence of persecution. In short, this promised blessing does not
apply to trouble one brings on themselves. It applies only if their
righteous (right in sight of God and man) lifestyle and stand for Jesus
generates opposition. To put it another way you might say that
persecution is a sign your life is right in the eyes of (God and) the
world.

Clarence Jordan observed
that, “It is difficult to be indifferent
to a wide-awake Christian.”

You can hate them or love them, but
you can’t ignore them. Wide-awake Christian confront others with the
reality of God. You can’t be neutral in such cases. “These people must be crowned or
crucified, because they are either mighty right or mighty wrong.”

Righteousness (1343)
(dikaiosune
[word study] from dikaios
[word study]=
being proper or right in the sense of being fully justified being or in
accordance with what God requires) is the quality of being upright. In
its simplest sense dikaiosune conveys
the idea of conformity to a standard or norm. In this sense righteousness is
the opposite of hamartia (sin), which is defined as missing of the mark
set by God.

In this sense righteousness is
the opposite of hamartia (sin), which is defined as missing of the mark
set by God.

Dikaiosune is
rightness of character before God and rightness of actions before men.
Righteousness of God could be succinctly stated as all that God is, all
that He commands, all that He demands, all that He approves, all that He
provides through (Click
hereto
read Pastor Ray Pritchard's interesting analysis of righteousness in
the Gospel of Matthew).

“Because Kingdom citizens do what God
requires,” “because their lives are right before God,” and “because they
live as God wants people to”, the lives of God's "children" convict (or
should convict) those who are living in darkness, whether those people
belong to no church or are members of a church in "good standing"!

Sinclair Ferguson - Christians are persecuted for the
sake of righteousness because of their loyalty to Christ. Real loyalty
to him creates friction in the hearts of those who pay him only lip
service. Loyalty arouses their consciences, and leaves them with only
two alternatives: follow Christ, or silence him. Often their only way of
silencing Christ is by silencing his servants. Persecution, in subtle or
less subtle forms, is the result. We have already seen that the gospel
produces a lifestyle characterised by righteousness. In practice, that
means absolute integrity, whether at home, in the work place, or even at
play. But such integrity challenges the moral indifference of the world,
not least in our own age. Not to do the things 'everybody does' stirs
the world's sleepy conscience. More than that, it irritates it, and
causes annoyance and even anger. You would not think that simple honesty
could be a dangerous lifestyle, until you put it into practice on the
shop floor! For the Christian who is employed by another person,
righteousness demands that he give his employer the time and energy for
which he is paid. It means moral integrity. But how angry other
employees can be when such integrity is displayed! (Ferguson,
Sinclair: Sermon on the Mount: Banner of Truth)

Persecution although
often surprising to the young saint (cf 1Peter 4:12-note),
is to be expected by Kingdom citizens who don't really belong to this
world and such persecution is amply testified to in the New Testament
(passages are in bold)...

(Jesus warned) "Woe to you when
all men speak well of you, for in the same way their fathers used to
treat the false prophets. (Luke 6:26) (What does this warning
signify? It means that if you have never, ever experienced suffering for
the sake of righteousness or His Name's sake, then you need to examine
your profession of faith [cf 2Cor 13:5]. If Christ is in you and His
beatitudes are now your character, however imperfectly they may be
manifest, then you will at
some time and to some degree be persecuted for your righteous [not self
righteous or judgmental] lifestyle in Christ which shines light on the
dark deeds of the enemies of Christ, cf Ro 5:10-note,
Col 1:21-note,
Ro 8:7-note).
(Beloved, persecution is the believers birthmark and is sure proof that
you are part of the family of God.) Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses this
issue writing...

This Beatitude tests our ideas as to
what the Christian is. The Christian is like his Lord, and this is what
our Lord said about him. 'Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well
of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets' (Luke 6:26).
And yet is not our idea of what we call the perfect Christian nearly
always that he is a nice, popular man who never offends anybody, and is
so easy to get on with? But if this Beatitude is true, that
is not the real Christian, because the
real Christian is a man who is not praised by everybody. They
did not praise our Lord, and they will never praise the man who is like
Him. 'Woe unto you, when
all men shall speak well of you!' That is what they did to the false
prophets; they did not do that to Christ Himself. So I draw my next
deduction. It concerns the natural, unregenerate man, and it is this.
The natural mind, as Paul says, 'is enmity against God. (Ro 8:7-note)
Though he talks about God, he really hates God (Ro 5:10-note).
And when the Son of God came on earth he hated and crucified Him (John
15:8, 9, 10). And that is the attitude of the world towards Him now.
This leads to the last deduction, which is that the new birth is an
absolute necessity before anybody can become a Christian. To be
Christian, ultimately, is to be like Christ; and one can never be like
Christ without being entirely changed. We must get rid of the old nature
that hates Christ and hates righteousness; we need a new nature that
will love these things and love Him and thus become like Him. If
you try to imitate Christ the world will praise you; if you become
Christlike it will hate you. (Lloyd-Jones,
D. M. Studies
in the Sermon on the Mount)
(Bolding added)

Only conduct yourselves in a manner
worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or
remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one
spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in
no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for
them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it
has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also
to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in
me, and now hear to be in me. (Note that that the gift of faith in
Christ Jesus and the gift of suffering come together. When you are
persecuted, and you will be when you walk worthy of the gospel,
remember... do not be alarmed - the Greek word pictures a frightened
horse shying away on the battlefield. Don't be ''startled''! In contrast
when we are not startled by their opposition, it is a sure sign that we
are saved! You realize that you have a home in heaven. So even if God
permits them to take your life, He is simply saying, "It's time to come
on Home, My child." This attitude will alarm your opponents, for when
they see you standing firm without being startled, it is a sign they are
doomed to eternal destruction. Why is this the case? Because if they
were being faced with the very persecution or threats they are giving
you, they would be "scarred stiff"! In short, you have given your
opponents a profound, piercing testimony of the reality of your faith.)
(Php 1:27, 28, 29, 30-see notes on Php
1:27-28, 1:29-30)
(See discussion questions Lesson
5)

"If the world hates you, you know
that it has hated Me before it hated you. "If you were of the world, the
world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I
chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. "Remember the
word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If
they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word,
they will keep yours also. (John
15:18-20)

And indeed, all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. (2Ti 3:12-note)
(Note how many will be persecuted. All. No exceptions. Note also the
Source of such a persecuted life - in Christ Jesus, i.e., those who
abide in the Vine for apart from Him we can do absolutely nothing, Jn
15:5. If we live what we think is "godly" in our own strength, we won't
necessarily be persecuted, for Christ's enemies won't see Him and He is
the One they hate and seek to denigrate and discredit)

Therefore do not be ashamed of the
testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in
suffering for the gospel according to the power of God (2Ti
1:8-note)
(Note how it is one is enabled to not be ashamed and to suffer - the
power of God)

The Spirit Himself bears witness with
our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also,
heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed (the
"if" in Greek means "since" and speaks of a certainty not a
possibility!) we suffer with
Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:16-18) (What is the
mark of a child of God? Suffering with Christ. What is our motivation?
future glory which far outweighs the present suffering, cf 2Cor 4:16,
17, 18. And so we we see that present suffering has purpose in preparing
us for future glory by removing the dross from our lives. 1Pe 1:6, 7-See notes1
Peter 1:6,1:7).

For this finds favor, if for
the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when
suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are
harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is
right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with
God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example (hupogrammos =
literally to "write under" was used of a copy­book of letters the pupil
would look at to write out or trace out their letters) for
you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT
FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in
return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting
Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in
His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were
continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the
Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. (1Pe 2:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,
25-see notes1Pe
2:18; 2:19; 2:20;2:21; 2:22; 2:23; 2:24;2:25)
(What happens when we "die to sin and live to righteousness" no longer
"continually straying like sheep"? We will suffer unjustly (which is the
kind of suffering which finds favor with God), especially by those with
whom we once "strayed like sheep." What are we to do? Bear up, patiently
endure, realize we were called to suffer unjustly, follow our Lord's
example, don't revile in return, don't utter threats when suffering,
refraining because we trust God's righteous judgment will one day be
meted out to our persecutors).

But even if you should
suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR
THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord
in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who
asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with
gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the
thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in
Christ may be put to shame. For it is better, if God should will it so,
that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is
wrong. (see notes 1
Peter 3:14; 3:15; 3:16; 3:17)

Beloved, do not be
surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your
testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the
degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so
that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with
exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed,
because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. By no means let
any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome
meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed,
but in that name let him glorify God. For it is time for judgment to
begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what
will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF
IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF
THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER? Therefore, let those also who suffer
according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator
in doing what is right. (see notes1
Peter 4:12; 4:13; 4:14; 4:15;4:16; 4:17; 4:18; 4:19)

But you might be saying "I've never
experienced persecution like these verses are describing"...Alexander
Maclaren addresses this
noting that...

The great reason why professing
Christians now know so little about persecution is because there is so
little real antagonism. ‘If ye were of the world, the world would love
his own.’ The Church has leavened the world, but the world has also
leavened the Church; and it seems agreed by common consent that there is
to be no fanatical goodness of the early primitive pattern. Of course,
then, there will be no persecution, where religion goes in silver
slippers, and you find Christian men running neck and neck with others,
and no man can tell which is which. Then, again, many escape by avoiding
plain Christian duty, shutting themselves up in their own little
coteries. (ibid)

Be aware of some who might try to
diminish the import of Jesus' promise of persecution for Kingdom
citizens in this present world. For example, the Expositor's
Bible Commentary notes that...

For - quite a strategic term of explanation!
Always ask at least the simple question "What
is the Author (in this case the ultimate AUTHOR!) saying? Here
Jesus is explaining the good news to all who suffer for the
Good News! The best is yet to come!

Theirsis
emphatic so it means theirs and theirs alone.

A B Bruce on theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven - The common
refrain of all the Beatitudes is expressly repeated here to hint that
theirs emphatically is the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the proper guerdon
of the soldier of righteousness. It is his now, within him in the
disciplined spirit and the heroic temper developed by trial. (Expositor's
Greek Testament)

Spurgeon - They are often evil
spoken of, they have sometimes to suffer the spoiling of their goods,
many of them have laid down their lives for Christ’s sake, but they are
truly blessed, for “﻿theirs is the kingdom of heaven.﻿”

Isis
in the present
tensewhich
indicates that this is their continual possession. Kingdom citizens have
already – here and now – entered into their Lord's Kingdom. Yes, it is a
Kingdom that is yet to be consummated and to be revealed in its final
glory. Indeed, we all wait expectantly for

the seventh angel
(to sound); and there (to arise) loud voices in heaven, saying, "The
kingdom of the world has become thekingdom
of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever (see noteRevelation
11:15)

But to an extent in a very real
sense, all the blessings that are expected in the future Kingdom are
already being experienced now by citizens of the Kingdom. They will just
be higher and purer and more glorious in the ages to come.

The Greek construction indicates once
again (as in all of the beatitudes) that this Kingdom belongs to them
and to them alone! No usurpers or counterfeits will infiltrate this
Kingdom!

Sinclair Ferguson
illustrates the point that Christians have the Kingdom of Heaven now,
telling the story of Izaak Walton, writer (best known as the author of
the seventeenth-century fishing manual, The Compleat Angler) who wrote
the following description of one of his great Christian contemporaries,
Richard Sibbes...

Of this blest man,
Let this just praise be given:
Heaven was in him
Before he was in heaven.

Observe also that
the same blessing kingdom
of heaven begins and ends
the eight beatitudes and thus signals the beginning and the end of this
section, a literary device known as “inclusion”. The Beatitudes
are a "package deal" so to speak. Clearly our King intends for the be
attitudes to be
understood as a unit and not as separate characteristics. In other
words, all Kingdom citizens possess all these characteristics, albeit
varying in the degree of development in each individual. These
characteristics are not ancillary but mandatory. In other words, the
eight Beatitudes are the attributes of the child of God, a character which
inevitably bring a conflict.
But the conflict becomes the very assurance that our salvation is
genuine! And so we can rejoice now as well as later in heaven.

Kingdom(

932)
(basileiafrom basileus =
a sovereign, king, monarch) denotes sovereignty, royal power, dominion
and refers therefore to the territory or people over whom a king rules.
The Kingdom of Heaven/God is the sphere in which God is acknowledged as
King (In hearts that have bowed in faith in Christ and now give Him
obedience albeit not perfectly in this world but perfect in the one to
come). In this sense the Kingdom has a spiritual aspect, a present
physical aspect, and a future eternal aspect (beginning with the millennium,
cf Mt 25:31,34), all of course depending on the context of the passage
in which basileia is found. Paul is careful to remind us that the
Kingdom of Heaven/God is not in observance of ordinances, external and
material, but in the deeper matters of the heart, which are spiritual
and essential (Ro 14:17-note)

The Kingdom is
the rule or reign of God and Jesus the King and so is the expression of
His gracious sovereign will. To belong to the Kingdom of Heaven is to
belong to the King as subjects with others men and women among whom the
reign of Christ has begun and who are eagerly awaiting His return and
establishment of His literal earthly kingdom.

On a
practical note, believers now live in the Kingdom of light, not the
"Kingdom of this world" (Re 11'15-note)
and this is why the battle you are currently experiencing dear saint is
far fiercer than anything you knew before you became a citizen of
Christ's Kingdom (which is here and paradoxically is yet to come). How
mistaken saints are when they assume that since they are now believers,
everything should be simpler, easier, less demanding. How could that be
when we have entered into a Kingdom that is alien to the world (cf 1Pe
1:1, 2:11-see notes 1
Peter 1:1, 2:11)
in which we now temporarily reside and the life we used to live? If our
King was tested, tempted, opposed, rejected and eventually crucified by
the kingdom of this world, should it surprise us that belonging to His
Kingdom of light would involve us in a struggle of titanic proportions?
And not only the external forces are arrayed against us, but we also
have to fight the continual battle within as well, as our own fallen
flesh nature seeks to take us down and draw us back into the kingdom of
darkness. You know full well what I am referring to! We all sadly carry
into the new glorious Kingdom of Christ some of the baggage of habits
and ways of thinking of the old kingdom life. And it can (and usually
is) a monumental struggle for us to be rid of them.

Robert Stein on the Kingdom of God - The heart of Jesus'
teachings centers around the theme of the kingdom of God. This
expression is found in sixty-one separate sayings in the Synoptic
Gospels. Counting parallels to these passages, the expression occurs
over eighty-five times. It also occurs twice in John (3:3,5). It is
found in such key places as the preaching of John the Baptist, "Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 3:2 ); Jesus' earliest
announcement, "The time has come… The kingdom of God is near. Repent and
believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15; cf. Matthew 4:17; Luke 4:42-43 );
the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, "your kingdom come" (Matthew 6:10
); in the Beatitudes, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew
5:3,10 ); at the Last Supper, "I will not drink again of the fruit of
the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God"
(Mark 14:25 ); and in many of Jesus' parables (Matthew 13:24,44 , 45,47;
Mark 4:26,30; Luke 19:11 ). It was once popular in certain circles to
argue that the expressions "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of
heaven" referred to two different realities. It is now clear,
however, that they are synonyms. This is evident for several
reasons. For one, the two expressions are used in the same sayings of
Jesus, but where Matthew uses "kingdom of heaven, " Mark or Luke or both
use "kingdom of God." Second, Matthew himself uses these two expressions
interchangeably in 19:23-24, "it is hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven … for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Finally, we know that "heaven" was frequently used as a circumlocution
for "God" by devout Jews. Due to respect for the third commandment ("You
shall not misuse the name of the Lordyour God" [ Exodus 20:7 ]), pious
Jews used various circumlocutions for the sacred name of God (YHWH) in
order to avoid the danger of breaking this commandment. One such
circumlocution was the term "heaven." This is seen in the expression
"kingdom of heaven" but also in such passages as Luke 15:18,21 ("Father,
I have sinned against heaven and against you") and Mark 11:30 .Various Interpretations Despite the centrality of this expression
in Jesus' teachings, there has been a great deal of debate over the
years as to exactly what Jesus meant by it. One reason for this is that
neither Jesus nor the Evangelists ever defined exactly what they meant
by this expression. They simply assumed that their hearers/ readers
would understand. (Click
for this lengthy article on the Kingdom of God - Baker's Evangelical
Dictionary of Biblical Theology)

Alexander Maclaren - The ‘kingdom of heaven’ is the
rule of God through Christ. It is present wherever wills bow to Him. It
is future, as to complete realisation, in the heaven from which it
comes, and to which, like its King, it belongs even while on earth.
Obviously, its subjects can only be those who feel their dependence, and
in poverty of spirit have
cast off self-will and self-reliance. ‘Theirs is the kingdom’
does not mean ‘they shall rule,’ but ‘of them shall be its subjects.’
True, they shall rule in the perfected form of it; but the first, and in
a real sense the only, blessedness is to obey God; and that blessedness
can only come when we have learned poverty of spirit, because we see
ourselves as in need of all things. (entire sermon)

Click hereto
study over 100 uses of the "Kingdom" most of which refer to the Kingdom
of Heaven/God.

Heaven(3772)
(ouranos, from oros =
hill and so the idea of elevation) is where God lives. The concept was
that there were 3 heavens, the first heaven = the atmosphere, the second
heaven = outer space and the third heaven = God’s abode (cf 2Co 12:2-4 - Clickfor
more discussion of The
Third Heaven).
In the present context Jesus is not referring so much to the place
(heaven) but the One Who is there and so the term is synonymous with
"kingdom of God", a term which would be less acceptable to the Jewish
listeners (and readers of Matthew's gospel) as the Jews strictly avoided
pronouncing the name "God".

Maclarenspeaks
of the twofold fulfillment of the blessing of the "kingdom of heaven"
writing that...

There is a present recompense. Persecution
is the result of a character which brings Christians into the kingdom.
Theirs is the kingdom — they are subjects. To them it is given to enter.
Persecution makes the present consciousness of the possession of the
kingdom more vivid and joyous. It brings the enforced sense of a
vocation separate from the hostile world’s. As Thomas Fuller puts it
somewhere, in troublous times the Church builds high, just as the men do
in cities where there is little room to expand on the ground level.

Persecution brightens and solidifies hope, and thus may become
infinitely sweet and blessed. How often it has been given to the martyr,
as it was given to Stephen, to see heaven opened and Jesus standing at
the right hand of God, as if risen to His feet to uphold as well as to
receive His servant. Paul and Silas made the prison walls ring with
their praises, though their backs were livid with wales and stained with
blood. And we, in our far smaller trials for Christ’s sake, may have the
same more conscious possession of the kingdom and brightened hope of yet
fuller possession of it.

There is a future recompense in the perfect kingdom, where men are
rewarded according to their capacities. And
if the way in which we have met the world’s evil has been right, then
that will have madeus
fit for a fuller possession. In closing we recur to the thought of all
these Beatitudes as a chain and the beginning of all as being penitence
and faith. Many a poor man, or many a little child, may have a higher
place in heaven than some who have died at the stake for their Lord, for
not our history, but our character, determines our place there, and all
the fulness of the kingdom belongs to every one who with penitent heart
comes to God in Christ, and then by slow degrees from that root brings
forth first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.(Matthew
5:10 The Eighth Beatitude)

><> ><> ><>

The
BlessingOf
Persecution"...Persecution,
even martyrdom, has been the cost of discipleship for Christians down
through the centuries. In many lands believers still suffer imprisonment
and death for their uncompromising devotion to their Savior. Even in
nations that have religious freedom, a person with a bold witness for
the Lord may become the target of ridicule.

When we experience hardship because of our Christian commitment, no
verse of Scripture is more comforting than the beatitude spoken by our
Savior, "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 5:10).

At one time in his life, British preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was so
intensely criticized that he became deeply depressed. So his wife
printed that beatitude along with the other seven on a large sheet of
paper and placed it above their bed. The first thing Spurgeon saw in the
morning and the last thing he read at night was our Savior's glorious
promise.

The
consecrated cross I'll bear
Till death shall set me free,
And then go home, my crown to wear,
For there's a crown for me. --Shepherd

If you live for God,
you can expect trouble from the world.

William Barclay has an interesting
discourse on Christian suffering in his comments on Mt 5:10-12 - One
of the outstanding qualities of Jesus was his sheer honesty. He never
left men in any doubt what would happen to them if they chose to follow
him. He was clear that he had come "not to make life easy, but to make
men great." It is hard for us to realise what the first Christians had
to suffer. Every department of their life was disrupted.

(i) Their Christianity might well disrupt their work. Suppose a
man was a stone-mason. That seems a harmless enough occupation. But
suppose his firm received a contract to build a temple to one of the
heathen gods, what was that man to do? Suppose a man was a tailor, and
suppose his firm was asked to produce robes for the heathen priests,
what was that man to do? In a situation such as that in which the early
Christians found themselves there was hardly any job in which a man
might not find a conflict between his business interests and his loyalty
to Jesus Christ.

The Church was in no doubt where a man's duty lay. More than a hundred
years after this a man came to Tertullian with this very problem. He
told of his business difficulties. He ended by saying, "What can I do? I
must live!" "Must you?" said Tertullian. If it came to a choice between
a loyalty and a living, the real Christian never hesitated to choose
loyalty.

(ii) Their Christianity would certainly disrupt their social life.
In the ancient world most feasts were held in the temple of some god. In
very few sacrifices was the whole animal burned upon the altar. It might
be that only a few hairs from the forehead of the beast were burned as a
symbolic sacrifice. Part of the meat went to the priests as their
perquisite; and part of the meat was returned to the worshipper. With
his share he made a feast for his friends and his relations. One of the
gods most commonly worshipped was Serapis. And when the invitations to
the feast went out, they would read:

"I invite you to dine with me at the table of our Lord Serapis."

Could a Christian share in a feast held in the temple of a heathen god?
Even an ordinary meal in an ordinary house began with a libation, a cup
of wine, poured out in honour of the gods. It was like grace before
meat. Could a Christian become a sharer in a heathen act of worship like
that? Again the Christian answer was clear. The Christian must cut
himself off from his fellows rather than by his presence give approval
to such a thing. A man had to be prepared to be lonely in order to be a
Christian.

(iii) Worst of all, their Christianity was liable to disrupt their
home life. It happened again and again that one member of a family
became a Christian while the others did not. A wife might become a
Christian while her husband did not. A son or a daughter might become a
Christian while the rest of the family did not. Immediately there was a
split in the family. Often the door was shut for ever in the face of the
one who had accepted Christ.

Christianity often came to send, not peace, but a sword which divided
families in two. It was literally true that a man might have to love
Christ more than he loved father or mother, wife, or brother or sister.
Christianity often involved in those days a choice between a man's
nearest and dearest and Jesus Christ.

Still further, the penalties which a Christian had to suffer were
terrible beyond description. All the world knows of the Christians who
were flung to the lions or burned at the stake; but these were kindly
deaths. Nero wrapped the Christians in pitch and set them alight, and
used them as living torches to light his gardens. He sewed them in the
skins of wild animals and set his hunting dogs upon them to tear them to
death. They were tortured on the rack; they were scraped with pincers;
molten lead was poured hissing upon them; red hot brass plates were
affixed to the tenderest parts of their bodies; eyes were torn out;
parts of their bodies were cut off and roasted before their eyes; their
hands and feet were burned while cold water was poured over them to
lengthen the agony. These things are not pleasant to think about, but
these are the things a man had to be prepared for, if he took his stand
with Christ.

We may well ask why the Romans persecuted the Christians. It seems an
extraordinary thing that anyone living a Christian life should seem a
fit victim for persecution and death. There were two reasons.

(i) There were certain slanders which were spread abroad about the
Christians, slanders for which the Jews were in no small measure
responsible. (a) The Christians were accused of cannibalism. The
words of the Last Supper--"This is my body." "This cup is the New
Testament in my blood"--were taken and twisted into a story that the
Christians sacrificed a child and ate the flesh. (b) The Christians
were accused of immoral practices, and their meetings were said to be
orgies of lust. The Christian weekly meeting was called the Agape,
the Love Feast; and the name was grossly misinterpreted. Christians
greeted each other with the kiss of peace; and the kiss of peace became
a ground on which to build the slanderous accusations. (c) The
Christians were accused of being incendiaries. It is true that they
spoke of the coming end of the world, and they clothed their message in
the apocalyptic pictures of the end of the world in flames. Their
slanderers took these words and twisted them into threats of political
and revolutionary incendiarism. (d) The Christians were accused of
tampering with family relationships. Christianity did in fact split
families as we have seen; and so Christianity was represented as
something which divided man and wife, and disrupted the home. There were
slanders enough waiting to be invented by malicious-minded men.

(ii) But the great ground of persecution was in fact political.
Let us think of the situation. The Roman Empire included almost the
whole known world, from Britain to the Euphrates, and from Germany to
North Africa. How could that vast amalgam of peoples be somehow welded
into one? Where could a unifying principle be found? At first it was
found in the worship of the goddess Roma, the spirit of Rome. This was a
worship which the provincial peoples were happy to give, for Rome had
brought them peace and good government, and civil order and justice. The
roads were cleared of brigands and the seas of pirates; the despots and
tyrants had been banished by impartial Roman justice. The provincial was
very willing to sacrifice to the spirit of the Empire which had done so
much for him.

But this worship of Roma took a further step. There was one man who
personified the Empire, one man in whom Roma might be felt to be
incarnated, and that was the Emperor; and so the Emperor came to be
regarded as a god, and divine honors came to be paid to him, and temples
were raised to his divinity. The Roman government did not begin this
worship; at first, in fact, it did all it could to discourage it.
Claudius, the Emperor, said that he deprecated divine honors being paid
to any human being. But as the years went on the Roman government saw in
this Emperor-worship the one thing which could unify the vast Empire of
Rome; here was the one centre on which they all could come together. So,
in the end, the worship of the Emperor became, not voluntary, but
compulsory. Once a year a man had to go and burn a pinch of incense to
the godhead of Caesar and say, "Caesar is Lord." And that is precisely
what the Christians refused to do. For them Jesus Christ was the Lord,
and to no man would they give that title which belonged to Christ.

It can be seen at once that Caesar-worship was far more a test of
political loyalty than anything else. In actual fact when a man had
burned his pinch of incense he received a certificate, a libellus, to
say that he had done so, and then he could go and worship any god he
liked, so long as his worship did not interfere with public order and
decency. The Christians refused to conform. Confronted with the choice,
"Caesar or Christ?" they uncompromisingly chose Christ. They utterly
refused to compromise. The result was that, however good a man, however
fine a citizen a Christian was, he was automatically an outlaw. In the
vast Empire Rome could not afford pockets of disloyalty, and that is
exactly what every Christian congregation appeared to the Roman
authorities to be. A poet has spoken of "The panting, huddled flock
whose crime was Christ."
The only crime of the Christian was that he set Christ above Caesar; and
for that supreme loyalty the Christians died in their thousands, and
faced torture for the sake of the lonely supremacy of Jesus Christ.

The Bliss Of The Blood-stained Way (Matthew 5:10-12 Continued) -
When we see how persecution arose, we are in a position to see the real
glory of the martyr's way. It may seem an extraordinary thing to talk
about the bliss of the persecuted; but for him who had eyes to see
beyond the immediate present, and a mind to understand the greatness of
the issues involved, there must have been a glory in that blood-stained
way.

(i) To have to suffer persecution was an opportunity to show one's
loyalty to Jesus Christ. One of the most famous of all the martyrs
was Polycarp, the aged bishop of Smyrna. The mob dragged him to the
tribunal of the Roman magistrate. He was given the inevitable
choice--sacrifice to the godhead of Caesar or die. "Eighty and six
years," came the immortal reply, "have I served Christ. and he has done
me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" So they brought
him to the stake, and he prayed his last prayer: "O Lord God Almighty,
the Father of thy well-beloved and ever-blessed son, by whom we have
received the knowledge of thee ... I thank thee that thou hast
graciously thought me worthy of this day and of this hour." Here was the
supreme opportunity to demonstrate his loyalty to Jesus Christ.

In the First World War Rupert Brooke, the poet, was one of those who
died too young. Before he went out to the battle he wrote:

"Now God be thanked who has matched us with his hour."

There are so many of us who have never in our lives made anything like a
real sacrifice for Jesus Christ. The moment when Christianity seems
likely to cost us something is the moment when it is open to us to
demonstrate our loyalty to Jesus Christ in a way that all the world can
see.

(ii) To have to suffer persecution is, as Jesus himself said, the way
to walk the same road as the prophets, and the saints, and the martyrs
have walked. To suffer for the right is to gain a share in a great
succession. The man who has to suffer something for his faith can throw
back his head and say,

"Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod."

(iii) To have to suffer persecution is to share in the great
occasion. There is always something thrilling in even being present
on the great occasion, in being there when something memorable and
crucial is happening. There is an even greater thrill in having a share,
however small, in the actual action. That is the feeling about which
Shakespeare wrote so unforgettably in Henry the Fifth in the words he
put into Henry's mouth before the battle of Agincourt:

"He that shall live this day and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends,
And say, 'Tomorrow is Saint Crispian':
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
......
And gentlemen in England now abed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

When a man is called on to suffer something for his Christianity that is
always a crucial moment; it is the great occasion; it is the clash
between the world and Christ; it is a moment in the drama of eternity.
To have a share in such a moment is not a penalty but a glory. "Rejoice
at such a moment," says Jesus, "and be glad." The word for be glad is
from the verb agalliasthai (Greek #21) which has been derived from two
Greek words which mean to leap exceedingly. It is the joy which leaps
for joy. As it has been put, it is the joy of the climber who has
reached the summit, and who leaps for joy that the mountain path is
conquered.

(iv) To suffer persecution is to make things easier for those who are
to follow. Today we enjoy the blessing of liberty because men in the
past were willing to buy it for us at the cost of blood, and sweat, and
tears. They made it easier for us, and by a steadfast and immovable
witness for Christ we may make it easier for others who are still to
come.

In the great Boulder Dam scheme in America men lost their lives in that
project which was to turn a dust-bowl into fertile land. When the scheme
was completed, the names of those who had died were put on a tablet and
the tablet was put into the great wall of the dam, and on it there was
the inscription. "These died that the desert might rejoice and blossom
as the rose."

The man who fights his battle for Christ will always make things easier
for those who follow after. For them there will be one less struggle to
be encountered on the way.

(v) Still further, no man ever suffers persecution alone; if a man is
called upon to bear material loss, the failure of friends, slander,
loneliness, even the death of love, for his principles, he will not be
left alone. Christ will be nearer to him than at any other time. (Editorial
comment - I think of Paul in the last chapter of the last letter,
shortly before he was martyred - 2Ti 4:16 2Tim 4:16 At my first
defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it
not be counted against them. 17 But[a blessedterm of contrast]
the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me
the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles
might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth. 18The Lord will
deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His
heavenly kingdom; to Him [be] the glory forever and ever. Amen. -
Remember that God does not
keep us from life's storms—He walks with us through them!)

The old story in Daniel tells how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were
thrown into the furnace heated seven times hot because of their refusal
to move from their loyalty to God. The courtiers watched. "Did we not
cast three men, bound, into the fire?" they asked. The reply was that it
was indeed so. Then came the astonished answer, "But I see four men,
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the
appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods" (Daniel 3:19-25-commentary
note).

As Browning had it in Christmas Eve and Easter Day:

"I was born sickly, poor and mean,
A slave; no misery could screen
The holders of the pearl of price
From Caesar's envy; therefore twice
I fought with beasts, and three times saw
My children suffer by his law;
At last my own release was earned;
I was some time in being burned,
But at the close a Hand came through
The fire above my head, and drew
My soul to Christ, whom now I see.
Sergius, a brother, writes for me
This testimony on the wall--
For me, I have forgot it all."

When a man has to suffer something
for his faith, that is the way to the closest possible companionship
with Christ.

There remains only one question to ask--why is this persecution so
inevitable? It is inevitable because the Church, when it really is the
Church, is bound to be the conscience of the nation and the conscience
of society. Where there is good the Church must praise; where there is
evil, the Church must condemn--and inevitably men will try to silence
the troublesome voice of conscience. It is not the duty of the
individual Christian habitually to find fault, to criticize, to condemn,
but it may well be that his every action is a silent condemnation of the
unchristian lives of others, and he will not escape their hatred.

It is not likely that death awaits us because of our loyalty--to the
Christian faith. But insult awaits the man who insists on Christian
honor. Mockery awaits the man who practices Christian love and Christian
forgiveness. Actual persecution may well await the Christian in industry
who insists on doing an honest day's work. Christ still needs his
witnesses; he needs those who are prepared, not so much to die for him,
as to live for him. The Christian struggle and the Christian glory still
exist. (William
Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Matthew 5)

Amplified:
Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with
life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless
of your outward conditions) are you when people revile you and
persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely
on My account. (Amplified
Bible - Lockman)KJV: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,
for my sake. NLT: "God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and
lied about because you are my followers. (NLT
- Tyndale House)Philips: "And what happiness will be yours when people blame
you and ill-treat you and say all kinds of slanderous things against
you for my sake! (New
Testament in Modern English) Wuest: Spiritually prosperous are you whenever they shall
revile you and persecute you and say every pernicious thing against
you, speaking deliberate falsehoods on account of me. (Wuest:
Expanded Translation: Eerdmans)

Young'sLiteral:
'Happy are ye whenever they may reproach you, and may persecute, and
may say any evil thing against you falsely for my sake--

Blessed(seemakarios
[word study]) spiritually
prosperous, happy, independent of the insults and aspersions thrown at
you because this blissful state is bestowed by God.

In the face of persecution, Jesus’
promise is stated as a reality here and now which explains His shift to
the second person plural (all of you) pronounyou. You,youwho
are listening andyouwho
are reading.Youare
persecuted butyouare
blessed.

When(3752)
(hotan) refers to an indefinite point or points of time which may
be roughly simultaneous to or overlap with another point of time and so
means on those occasions, at those times when, whenever, or as often as.
Distinguish between "when" and "if" -- If Christ is living in you and
through you (Col 3:4, et al), then it is just a matter of time before
you are denigrated for taking a stand for His Gospel! You can count on
it! The corollary is that if you are NEVER insulted or persecuted for
the Gospel, there are two possibilities - (1) You are living for self,
not Savior and the lost can't even recognize you as saved! or (2) You
are not saved. You are not flowing against the current, but you are
flowing downstream with all of the other dead wood! (Pun intended!)

Guzik - Jesus brings insults and spoken malice into the sphere of
persecution. We cannot limit our idea of persecution to only physical
opposition or torture.

Insult(3679)
(oneidizo
[word study]fromóneidos=
disgrace, abuse, or object of disgrace or shame) means to assail with
abusive words, upbraid (), slander, revile, falsely accuse or to speak
disparagingly of a person in manner not justified, to find fault in a
way that demeans the other, to mock, to heap insults upon as a way of
shaming. The idea is to to find fault in a way that demeans the one
being reproached. It means toupbraid,
which in turn means to criticize severely, find fault with, reproach
severely or scold vehemently.

There is an use ofoneidizoin
which one justifiably lays a charge on someone else (see below - Jesus
reproached cities, His own disciples)

Oneidizo“to
cast into the teeth,” as in “hurling an insult.” It means that
Christians can expect to be made the butt of public jokes and open
ridicule.

Oneidizorefers
to especially strong verbal abuse which is interesting because the
Jewish culture at that time considered verbal abuse to be extremely
vicious. The Jewish rabbis even considered reviling to be as evil as
idolatry, fornication, and bloodshed all combined! Why so serious?
Because by the defamation of one's character the victim would lose his
or her place in the community and, according to the circumstance of that
day, almost the possibility of continuing their life. The insulting word
itself was believed to have a power of its own.

Oneidizocan
be translated “say evil about”, “say you are bad”. In West Africa there
is an idiom, “to spoil your name” which is very appropriate in this
context.

Here are the 9 uses ofoneidizoin
the NT...

Matthew 5:11 "Blessed
are you when mencastinsultsat
you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely,
on account of Me.

Matthew 11:20 Then He began toreproachthe
cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not
repent.

Matthew 27:44And
the robbers also who had been crucified with Him werecastingthe
sameinsultat
Him.

Mark 15:32"Let
this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that
we may see and believe!" And those who were crucified with Him werecastingthe
sameinsultat
Him.

Mark 16:14 And afterward He
appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table;
and Hereproachedthem
for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed
those who had seen Him after He had risen.

Luke 6:22 "Blessed are you
when men hate you, and ostracize you, andcastinsultsat
you, and spurn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.

Romans 15:3(note)For
even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "The
reproaches of those whoreproachedThee
fell upon Me." (Comment: Paul is holding up Christ as the perfect
model of unselfishness.)

James 1:5 But if any of you
lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and
withoutreproach, and
it will be given to him.

1 Peter 4:14(note)If
you arereviledfor
the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of
God rests upon you.

1 Samuel 17:36"Your
servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised
Philistine will be like one of them, since he hastaunted(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo) the armies of the living
God."

Nehemiah 6:13He
(Shemaiah the son of Delaiah) was hired (Nehemiah's mortal enemies
Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him) for this reason, that I might become
frightened and act accordingly and sin, so that they might have an evil
report in order that they couldreproach(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo) me.

Psalm 42:10As
a shattering of my bones, my adversariesrevile(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo) me, While they say to me
all day long, "Where is your God?" (Spurgeon's
note=
Cruel mockeries cut deeper than the flesh, they reach the soul as though
a rapier were introduced between the ribs to prick the heart. If
reproaches kill not, yet they are killing, the pain caused is
excruciating. The tongue cuts to the bone, and its wounds are hard to
cure. While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? This is the most
unkind cut of all, reflecting as it does both upon the Lord's
faithfulness and His servant's character. Such was the malice of David's
foes, that having thought of the cruel question, they said it, said it
daily, repeated it to him, and that for a length, of time; surely the
continual yapping of these curs at his heel was enough to madden him,
and perhaps would have done so had he not resorted to prayer and made
the persecutions of his enemies a plea with his Lord.)

Psalm 69:9For
zeal for Thy house has consumed me (quoted by Jesus in John 2:14, by
Paul inRomans
15:3), And thereproaches(Lxx
= noun = oneidismos related to verb oneidizo = unjustifiable verbal
abuse and/or insults) of those whoreproach(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo in thepresent
tense=
continually) Thee have fallen on me. (Spurgeon's
note-
Those who habitually blaspheme God now curse me instead. I have become
the butt for arrows intended for the Lord Himself. Thus the Great
Mediator [THE MESSIAH] was, in this respect, a Substitute for God as
well as for man, He bore the reproaches aimed at the one, as well as the
sins committed by the other.)

Psalm 74:10How
long, O God, will the adversaryrevile(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo), And the enemy spurn Thy
name forever? (Spurgeon's
note=
O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Though we know not how
long yet thou dost. The times and seasons are with thee. When God is
reproached, there is hope for us, for it may be He will hearken and
avenge His dishonoured name. Wickedness has great license allowed it,
and justice lingers on the road; God has His reasons for delay, and His
seasons for action, and in the end it shall be seen that He is not slack
concerning His promise as some men count slackness.)

Psalm 74:18Remember
this, O LORD, that the enemy hasreviled(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo); And a foolish people
has spurned Thy name. (Spurgeon's
note=
Against thee, the ever glorious Maker of all things, have they spoken,
Thine honour have they assailed, and defied even Thee. This is forcible
pleading indeed, and reminds us of Moses and Hezekiah in their
intercessions: "What wilt thou do unto thy great name?" "It may be that
the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, who hath reproached
the living God." Jehovah is a jealous God, and will surely glorify His
own Name; here our hope finds foothold.)

Psalm 102:8My
enemies havereproached(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo), me all day long; Those
who deride me have used my name as a curse. (Spurgeon's
note=
Their rage was unrelenting and unceasing, and vented itself in taunts
and insults, the Psalmist's patriotism and his griefs were both made the
subjects of their sport. Pointing to the sad estate of his people they
would ask him, "Where is your God?" and exult over him because their
false gods were in the ascendant. Reproach cuts like a razor, and when
it is continued from hour to hour, and repeated all the day and every
day, it makes life itself undesirable. They were so furious that they
bound themselves by oath to destroy him, and used his name as their
usual execration, a word to curse by, the synonym of abhorrence and
contempt. What with inward sorrows and outward persecutions he was in as
ill a plight as may well be conceived.)

Psalm 119:42So
I shall have an answer for him whoreproaches(Hebrew
= charaph = to reproach, taunt; Lxx = oneidizo in thepresent
tense=
continually) me, For I trust (Hebrew = batach = have confidence in; Lxx
= elpizo = to hope, in the sense of counting on!) in Thy word.

Comment: A Scriptural antidote
you can "pick up" like a shield to defend your mind from the fiery
missiles of the evil one.

Spurgeon's note=
So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me. This is an
unanswerable answer. When God, by granting us salvation, gives to our
prayers an answer of peace, we are ready at once to answer the
objections of the infidel, the quibbles of the skeptical, and the sneers
of the contemptuous. It is most desirable that revilers should be
answered, and hence we may expect the Lord to save his people in order
that a weapon may be put into their hands with which to rout his
adversaries. When those who reproach us are also reproaching God, we may
ask him to help us to silence them by sure proofs of his mercy and
faithfulness.

For I trust in thy word. His faith was seen by his being trustful while
under trial, and he pleads it as a reason why he should be helped to
beat back reproaches by a happy experience. Faith is our argument when
we seek mercies and salvation; faith in the Lord who has spoken to us in
his word. "I trust in thy word" is a declaration more worth the making
than any other; for he who can truly make it has received power to
become a child of God, and so to be the heir of unnumbered mercies. God
hath more respect to a man's trust than to all else that is in him; for
the Lord hath chosen faith to be the hand into which he will place his
mercies and his salvation. If any reproach us for trusting in God, we
reply to them with arguments the most conclusive when we show that God
has kept his promises, heard our prayers, and supplied our needs. Even
the most sceptical are forced to bow before the logic of facts.

In this second verse of this eight the Psalmist makes a confession of
faith, and a declaration of his belief and experience. Note that he does
the same in the corresponding verses of the sections which follow. See
notes on the following psalmsPsalms
119:50,
"Thy word hath quickened me";Ps
119:58,
"I entreated thy favour";Psalms
119:66,
"I have believed thy commandments";Ps
119:74, "I have hoped in thy
word." A wise preacher might find in these a series of experimental
discourses.

Persecute(1377)
(diokofromdío=
pursue, prosecute, persecute) means to follow or press hard after.Diokospeaks
of an intensity of effort leading to a pursue with earnestness and
diligence in order to lay hold of and oppress or harass the "blessed".
The picture of this word is like the ferocious hunting dogs after the
poor little red fox.

Lloyd-Jonesemphasizes
why citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven are persecuted writing that it
is "Because he is fundamentally
different, and the non-Christian recognizes this. The Christian is not
just like everybody else with a slight difference. He is essentially
different; he has a different nature and he is a different man. (Lloyd-Jones,
D. M.Studies
in the Sermon on the Mount)

Persecuted, tortured for Christ's
sake...it congers up images of holy men tied to stakes with flames
arising all around them, of men tied to poles and dunked beneath the
water to be drowned, of men brought out to fight and die at the hands of
hungry lions before blood thirsty Roman crowds, of men forced to starved
and literally forced to eat refuge unless they deny Christ, of men
thrown into prison for years and years in China simply for preaching the
gospel...and the beat goes on. What about today, surely nothing like
these things is happening is it? Unquestionably and it may be worse
than we can imagine. If you don't believe it go to the following linkThe
Voice of the Martyrs. Or
go to Google and type in the wordsvoice
of the martyrs news(don't
put it in quotes) and click some of the links that you retrieve to read
about imprisonments, beatings, and murder of men and women who are
willing to live and die for the sake of Christ and His righteousness. We
often hear Christian leaders warn that these events are not that far
away from us in post-Christian America.

What happened to the early church
leaders? Some are recorded
in Scripture but most of the following are from extra-biblical
sources...

James--Beheaded
Phillip--Crucified
Matthew--Slain by the sword
James the Less--Stoned to death
Matthias--Stoned, then beheaded
Andrew--Crucified, left hanging on the cross for three days
Peter--Crucified upside down
Paul--Beheaded by Nero in Rome
Jude--Crucified
Bartholomew--Beaten to death with clubs
Thomas--Speared to death
Simon the Zealot--Crucified
John--Exiled to Patmos; died a prisoner

Whether the specific details are
accurate does not detract from the real and present reality of
persecution for as Jesus stated...

"These things (John 14-16) I have
spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you havetribulation(originally
crushing beneath a weight) but take courage; I have overcome the world."
(John 16:33)

I like (maybe that's not the right
word) whatC H Spurgeonsaid ''You set your heart aflame with the
Word of God and man shall come and watch you burn.''

The famous German martyrDietrich
Bonhoefferwrote the
following from his Flossenberg prison cell in 1937 "Suffering… is the badge of the true
Christian. The disciple is not above his master.… Luther reckoned
suffering among the marks of the true church, and one of the memoranda
drawn up in preparation for the Augsburg Confession similarly defines
the church as the community of those “﻿who are persecuted and martyred
for the gospel’s sake.﻿”… Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering
Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should
be called upon to suffer.﻿ (Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, The Cost of DiscipleshipTouchstone,
1995) (As an aside, Eric
Metaxas' bio on Bonhoeffer is outstanding -- it's long and gets a bit
technical in parts, but you will finish it feeling like you personally
know this great martyr -- Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy )

In a parallel passage in Luke, Jesus
addshatred,ostracismandspurningdeclaring
""Blessed are you when menhate(dislike
you strongly with the implication of aversion and hostility and usually
implying active ill will in words and conduct) you, andostracize(literally
mark of or set off by a boundary and so remove one from association,
exclude) you, andcast
insults(oneidizo=
same word in Mt 5:11) at you, andspurn
your name(literally cast
out or throw out your name) as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.
(Luke 6:22)

I'm sure if you've
walked worthy of the gospel of Christ for any length of time, you could
add to the list of evil things opponents of Christ have hurled at your
character. We probably couldn't even print many of them for they are so
evil. By the way, as emphasized elsewhere in this discussion, although
Jesus is calling us to be radical, He is not calling for us to be
fanatical to the point of being obnoxious, bizarre, weird or repulsive.
He is calling on us to manifest the seven "be attitudes" and that
is guaranteed to bring trouble and all kinds of insulting names.

Spurgeonqualifies
this beatitude writing that "it must be said
falsely, and it must be for Christ’s sake, if you are to be blessed; but
there is no blessing in having evil spoken of you truthfully, or in
having it spoken of you falsely because of some bitterness in your own
spirit.

Evil(4190)
(ponerosfrompónos=
sorrow, pain) refers to evil in active opposition to good and which is
actively harmful or hurtful. Not surprisingly Satan is referred to as
the "ho poneros" which is literally "the evil one".

All kinds of evilmeans
that unbelievers will tell deliberate lies about us. It also means there
is no limit on the kinds of slander and falsehood we will have to
endure. We live in an age where the ridicule of blacks is forbidden
(rightly so), where anti-Semitism is punishable by political death
(rightly so), but where Christian-bashing is a popular indoor sport; and
films mocking Jesus Christ are considered avant-garde! After all who
controls Hollywood and the film industry!

Falsely(5574)
(pseudomairelated topseudo=
to cheat, defraud, falsify) means to utter an untruth, to attempt to
deceive by falsehood, to lie or to speak falsely or deceitfully.

Notethat
some manuscripts do not havepseudomai,
as they feel it was a scribal addition. Irregardless, it does explain
the true meaning of the text and is retained by many trustworthy
translations such as NAS, KJV, NIV, NET, et al

Oswald Chambers- When you begin to
deport yourself amongst men as a saint, they will leave you absolutely
alone, you will be reviled and persecuted. No man can stand that unless
he is in love with Jesus Christ; he cannot do it for a conviction or a
creed, but he can do it for a Being Whom he loves. Devotion to a Person
is the only thing that tells; devotion to death to a Person, not
devotion toacreed
or a doctrine. (Chambers, O. Studies in the sermon on the mount. Hants
UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott)

On account of(1752)
(heneka) is an adverb in the previous verse translated in the NAS
"for the sake" explaining why evil, injurious, hateful things are being
said of the "sons of God". This confirms that therighteousnessof
life that causes the persecution in Mt 5:10 is synonymous with the
Christ life or a righteous lifestyle in conformity to that of Christ and
empowered by His Spirit.

I love howAlexanderMaclarenchallenges
all Kingdom citizens declaring that "A true Christian ought to be a
standing rebuke to the world, an incarnate conscience."

So what are we to do as citizens
of the Kingdom of heaven?We
must live out the Christ life in the real world manifesting the seven
character qualities Jesus has outlined (poor in spirit, mourning, meek,
hungry for righteous living, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaking). This
will present an indelible mark that you are a follower of Christ.
Everyone will know. Not everyone will like it, but no one will be able
to deny this mark. Don't worry about seeking persecution. It will seek
you! And you won't have to "stir up trouble" to incite persecution.
Living like Jesus will give you all the persecution you can handle and
then some! There will be times when you as a good soldier of Christ
Jesus, you are called to stand up for what is right in opposition to
that which is evil. Martin Luther put it this way...

If I declare with loudest voice and
clearest exposition every portion of God’s truth except that one little
bit which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not
confessing Christ no matter how boldly I may be professing Christ. For
the soldier to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight
and disgrace if he flinches at that single point.

When they use the name above all
names as a curse word or in a joke, it's time to (poor in spirit, in
meekness and mercy) speak up or maybe to make your statement by turning
and walking away. Why? Because if you don't speak up in gentleness and
reverence, who will?

Chrysostomin
his homily on Matthew 5 writes that...

Then, lest thou shouldest imagine
peace in all cases a blessing (Mt 5:9), He hath added, “Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”﻿...“Blessed are ye, when
men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil
against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.”﻿

As if He said, “Though they should
call you sorcerers, deceivers, pestilent persons, or whatever else,
blessed are ye”: so He speaks. What could be newer than these
injunctions? wherein the very things which all others avoid, these He
declares to be desirable; I mean, being poor, mourning, persecution,
evil report. But yet He both affirmed this, and convinced not two, nor
ten, nor twenty, nor an hundred, nor a thousand men, but the whole
world. And hearing things so grievous and galling, so contrary to the
accustomed ways of men, the multitudes “were astonished.” So great was
the power of Him who spake.

However, lest thou shouldest think
that the mere fact of being evil spoken of makes men blessed, He hath
set two limitations; when it is for His sake, and when the things that
are said are false: for without these, he who is evil spoken of, so far
from being blessed, is miserable.

Then see the prize again: “Because
your reward is great in heaven.” But thou, though thou hear not of a
kingdom given in each one of the blessings, be not discouraged. For
although He give different names to the rewards, yet He brings all into
His kingdom. Thus, both when He saith, “they that mourn shall be
comforted;” and, “they that show mercy shall obtain mercy;” and, “the
pure in heart shall see God;” and, the peacemakers “shall be called the
children of God;” nothing else but the Kingdom doth He shadow out by all
these sayings. For such as enjoy these, shall surely attain unto that.
Think not therefore that this reward is for the poor in spirit only, but
for those also who hunger after righteousness, for the meek, and for all
the rest without exception.

Since on this account He hath set His
blessing on them all, that thou mightest not look for anything sensible:
for that man cannot be blessed, who is crowned with such things as come
to an end with this present life, and hurry by quicker than a shadow. (Homilies
of the Gospel of Saint Matthew - Scroll down)

><>><>><>

Can You Take
Criticism?...How good are you at making
enemies? No, I didn't ask how good you are at making friends. That's
easy. Just be a good Joe, an easy spender, a tolerant sort of fellow who
never offends anybody.

But how good are you at making enemies?If
you are a child of God and you can move among wicked, ungodly, cursing
men and women today, and not be different enough to incur their disfavor
or reviling words, you certainly are not much of a testimony.Do
you avoid discussing spiritual issues because you're afraid of criticism
for your faith in Christ? Are you ashamed to talk to others about Him
for fear of losing friends?

In the thousands of letters that we receive each week in response to our
broadcasts and literature, we read comments of appreciation and of
criticism. I can honestly say that I appreciate the critical letters as
much as any others, for they confirm the gospel I preach. The Word of
God is like a two-edged sword that cuts both ways. For believers it
offers instructions on how to live a godly life (2Ti 3:16-note;
2Ti 3:12-note),
and it brings conviction to the minds of unbelievers (Heb 4:12-note).

If you're willing to make enemies for Jesus' sake, rejoice, "for great
is your reward in heaven" (Mt. 5:12). --M. R. De Haan, M.D. (founder of
RBC Ministries)

The Blessing Of Persecution By Vernon C. Grounds
-Persecution, even martyrdom, has been
the cost of discipleship for Christians down through the centuries. In
many lands believers still suffer imprisonment and death for their
uncompromising devotion to their Savior. Even in nations that have
religious freedom, a person with a bold witness for the Lord may become
the target of ridicule.

When we experience hardship because of our Christian commitment, no
verse of Scripture is more comforting than the beatitude spoken by our
Savior, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:10).

At one time in his life, British preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was so
intensely criticized that he became deeply depressed. So his wife
printed that beatitude along with the other seven on a large sheet of
paper and placed it above their bed. The first thing Spurgeon saw in the
morning and the last thing he read at night was our Savior’s glorious
promise.

Are you discouraged because you are suffering for your Christian
testimony? The antidote is this one sustaining promise: “Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”

The consecrated cross I'll bear
Till death shall set me free,
And then go home, my crown to wear,
For there's a crown for me. —Shepherd

If you live for God,
you can expect trouble from the world.

><>><>><>

The Others By Cindy Hess
Kasper - When I was growing up, I often spent a week each
summer with my grandparents. Many afternoons I would lie in the backyard
hammock and read books I found in Grandpa’s bookcase. One was Foxe’s
Book of Martyrs. It was heavy reading for a young girl, but I was
absorbed by the detailed accounts of Christian martyrs, believers who
were told to deny their faith in Christ but refused—thus suffering
horrific deaths.

Hebrews 11 tells similar stories. After listing the familiar
names of those who demonstrated immense faith in God, the chapter tells
of the torture and death of people referred to simply as “others” (Heb
11:35-36). While their names are not mentioned, Heb 11:38 pays them this
tribute: “The world was not worthy” of them. They died boldly for their
faith in Jesus.

Today, we hear of persecuted Christians around the world, yet
many of us have not been tested to that extent. When I examine my own
faith, I wonder how I would respond to the prospect of martyrdom. I hope
I would have the attitude of Paul, who said that although “chains and
tribulations” awaited him (Acts 20:23), he looked forward to finishing
life’s race “with joy” (Acts 20:24). Are we facing life with that kind
of trusting attitude?

When pressures mount because we walk
The path of truth and right,
We can rejoice to know that we
Are pleasing in God’s sight.—D. De Haan

Amplified: Be
glad and supremely joyful, for your reward in heaven is great
(strong and intense), for in this same way people persecuted the
prophets who were before you.(Amplified
Bible - Lockman)KJV: Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your
reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you.
who are the salt of the earthNLT: Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward
awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were
persecuted, too. (NLT
- Tyndale House)Philips: Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad - for your
reward in Heaven is magnificent. They persecuted the prophets before
your time in exactly the same way. (New
Testament in Modern English)Wuest: Be rejoicing and exult exceedingly, because your
reward is great in heaven. For in this manner they persecuted the
prophets who were before you. (Wuest:
Expanded Translation: Eerdmans)

Young'sLiteral:
rejoice ye and be glad, because your reward is great in the heavens,
for thus did they persecute the prophets who were before you.

Rejoice(5463)
(chairo) means to be cheerful (cheer "full"), to be calmly happy
or well-off or to enjoy a state of happiness and well-being. "Rejoice"
is use to describe a little lamb skipping around for joy. It describes a
physical change in one's countenance and is not something one can fake.
It is a physical expression of joy that radiates to others (cf Mt 5:16).
You can walk around and say that you are rejoicing but if it's not seen
then you are not rejoicing!

Bothrejoiceandbe
gladarecommandsto
carry out these attitudes and actions at all times (present
imperative),
especially when you are being persecuted for the sake of God's
righteousness (not self-righteousness) and the Name of your Lord and
King, Christ Jesus. We can all naturally rejoice when we are prosperous,
but we can only supernaturally rejoice when we are persecuted! The joy commanded here, as elsewhere in Scripture
(esp. Jas 1:2-note),
is not an emotion but an attitude (and a fruit of the Spirit - Gal 5:22,
23-seenotesGal
5:22;23).
Without meaning to sound harsh, one aspect is that if we don't rejoice when we suffer for our
King's sake, it amounts to disobedience and is a reflection of our
failure to really believe His promises. The world can take away every
possession we own but it cannot disown us from Jesus and the joy He
gives. Not only that, the worst the world can do to us is only
temporary. Keep in mind that God's commandments always include His
enablements! And truth be told, the only way we can rejoice and jump for
joy (also a command), is by relying on supernatural power, by
jettisoning self-reliance, and relying solely on the Spirit Who indwells
us. This reliance begins with being filled with (controlled by) Him (Eph
5:18). Do you rise in the morning and give the day to God, acknowledging
that you can't live the supernatural life unless the Spirit of Christ
lives it through you? You can begin tomorrow. Present yourself to God as
a living and holy sacrifice. You can be sure you will have some "tests"
which will determine on whose power you are depending, self or Savior!
And if you fail (like yours truly), don't give up in frustration. Keep
coming back to God each morning begging for Him to live His life through
you so that He gets great glory! This surely is a prayer in the vein, so
to speak, of 1John 5:14-15!

We also need to remember that because
we are in covenant with our Lord, when the world persecutes us, they are
in effect persecuting Him and He is ultimately our Avenger. (see Acts
9:3, 4, 5, cf Gal 6:17, Col 1:24-note).
(See Covenant: The Exchange of Armor and
Belts)

Matthewfirst
usedchairoof
the wise men recording that "when they saw the
star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy." (Mt 2:10)

Be glad(21)
(agalliaofromagan=
much +hallomai=
jump; gush, leap, spring up) means literally "jump for joy" or
experience a state of great joy and gladness. As you might surmise,
agalliao often is accompanied by verbal expression and appropriate body
movements. The idea is to be extremely joyful and to express it. You
really can't fake this joy.Agalliaoexpresses
extreme joy, especially as it is used in theSeptuagint
(LXX)(see
uses in Isa 12.6; 25.9; 29.19; 35.1, 2; 41.17; 49.13; 61.10; 65.14, 19).

A B Bruce notes that "agalliao is a strong word of
Hellenistic coinage, from agan and hallomai, to leap much, signifying
irrepressible demonstrative gladness. This joy is inseparable from the
heroic temper. It is the joy of the Alpine climber standing on the top
of a snow clad mountain. But the Teacher gives two reasons to help
inexperienced disciples to rise to that moral elevation. For evil
treatment on earth there is a compensating reward in heaven. This
hope, weak now, was strong in primitive
Christianity, and greatly helped martyrs and confessors.
(The
Expositor's Greek Testament)

Be gladis
in themiddle
voicewhich
is reflexive meaning the subject initiates the action and participates
in the effect or result. "Be gladyourself"!

Someone has well said of the
Christian like that
"Faith makes a
Christian. Life proves a Christian. Trial confirms a Christian. Death
crowns a Christian."
Hallelujah!!!

Another anonymous
writer phrased it "The Christian life
doesn't get easier; it gets better."

Spurgeonnotes
that "You are in the true
prophetic succession, if you cheerfully bear reproach of this kind for
Christ’s sake, you prove that you have the stamp and seal of those who
are in the service of God.

Richard Wurmbrand(Voice
of the Martyrs) described this kind of joy. How was he persecuted?
Probably not like any of us will ever be called upon to endure. While in
a Romanian prison, Wurmbrand's torturers ripped chunks of flesh out of
his body as his scars dramatically testified. He endured the horror of
solitary confinement, so that for weeks to months no one would speak to
him in his tiny cell. Amazingly, despite such inhumane treatment
Wurmbrand experienced times when he was overcome with sheer joy,
sometimes to the point of actually weakly rising to his feet and dancing
around his cell confident that the angels were dancing with him. When
Wurmbrand was unexpectedly released from prison , he left the looking
like a scarecrow including his rotting teeth. Along the road he met a
peasant who offered him a strawberry from the basket she was carrying,
to which he replied “﻿No thank you. I am
going to fast!﻿” He went home to his
wife, and they prayed and fasted as a memorial to the joy he had
experienced while undergoing the horrors of persecution for the cause of
Christ while in prison, asking God for the same joy outside of his
prison cell. Wurmbrand believed Jesus' promise in this beatitude. Do we?

Now note something
important. All four things happen at the same time. As I am righteous,
the world persecutes me. As a result, God blesses me, which causes me to
rejoice. That joy encourages me to continues my righteous lifestyle,
which prompts the world to persecute and God to bless, which leads to
more joy and increased desire for righteousness. On and on the process
goes with righteousness, persecution, blessing and joy coming on top of
each other. How many of those things are positive and how many are
negative?

Positive =
Righteousness, Blessing, Rejoicing

Negative =
Persecution

Three out of four
are positive in every sense; only persecution is negative. Think of it
this way: Persecution is the trigger that causes God to pour out his
blessings on your life. And that enables you to rejoice. If you focus
only on the persecution, you’re going to miss 75% of the fun of the
Christian life! (The
Blessing No One Wants)

To rejoice in sorrow, to be happy when we are persecuted, and to give
thanks in everything, takes grace. Yet, this is the Lord's command to
each of His tested children. If the Savior is leading, and we recognize
Him as the tender Good Shepherd who never makes any mistakes, then we
should not let distresses unnerve us, or sorrow break our spirit.

Many years ago someone handed me a
tract on which were printed these instructive words from an anonymous
author:

It is better to rejoice than to, be
resigned. The word `resigned' is not found in the Bible, but `rejoice'
runs through the Scriptures like a great carillon of music. There is
danger of self-pity in resignation — and self-pity is deadly poison.
There is no danger, however, that we will be pitying ourselves while
rejoicing `with joy unspeakable and full of glory.' (1Pe 1:8-note)
Resignation often means a certain mock piety — perhaps unconsciously so,
but nevertheless real. Joy, however, is `the fruit of the Spirit' (Gal
5:22-note);
not a counterfeit, but real with supernatural and divine power. The Lord
Jesus Christ told His disciples that hard times were coming for them,
and that these difficulties meant blessing (Luke 6:22). And how did the
Lord say the disciples should take those experiences when they came?
With resignation? God forbid! He said, `Rejoice ye in that day, and leap
for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven'!"

Yes, we must avoid self-pity and its
sorrow-faced counter-part of "mere resignation." Both are unworthy
reactions to God's leading. Don't be "resigned"; it is a form of unholy
fatalism, and, as such, is never mentioned in the Bible.

So bless the travail of gloom-filled
hours,
For joy is oft wrought with pain
And what if the day be dark? Thank God
That the sun will shine again!
—MacLennan

True victory is to rejoice in what
God sends,
and never to long for what He sees fit to deny!

For - Praise God for this strategic
term of explanation! This
is pie in the sky bye and bye! This is the non-lying God, giving us His
sure word of promise, "For all the promises of God in him are
yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God." (2Cor 1:20KJV) Practice
pondering the "for's" in Scripture and you will be wonderfully
rewarded with rich insights on the passage!

If it bothers you to think of "rewards"
you need to realize that it is a reward of God’s grace, and is not
something earned in the strict sense. In other words, the reward is that
which God wills to give to those who serve Him faithfully. It is not a
compensation for work done, but rather a gift which far exceeds services
rendered. In fact rewards are one of the motives that God Himself gives
for service that glorifies Him. Clearly our highest motive for service
is our love for Him. The concept of rewards is neither selfish nor
unspiritual.

Notice thatheavenis
forever which dramatically contrasts with our short time on earth, James
reminding us...

Great(4183)
(polus) means many, much of number, quantity or amount. So not
only are our rewards eternal but they are great. And so whatever we do
for the Lord now (as we abide in the Vine, John 15:5), especially
suffering for His Name, will reap great eternal dividends that neither
moth nor rust can destroy and thieves cannot steal.

Nothing is lost that
is done for the Lord,
Let it be ever so small;
The smile of the Savior approveth the deed,
As though 'twere greatest of all.
—A. M.

Expositor's Bible Commentaryhas
this explanatory note on "rewards" - "C. S. Lewis (They
Asked For a Paper [London: Geoffrey Bles, 1962], p. 198; cited in Stott,
pp. 131-32) rightly distinguishes various kinds of rewards. A man who
marries a woman for her money is "rewarded" by her money, but he is
rightly judged mercenary because the reward is not naturally linked with
love. On the other hand, marriage is the proper reward of an honest and
true lover; and he is not mercenary for desiring it because love and
marriage are naturally linked. "The proper rewards are not simply tacked
on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself
in consummation" (ibid.). The rewards of the NT belong largely to this
second category. Life lived under kingdom norms is naturally linked with
the bliss of life in the consummated kingdom.Talk
of "merit" or of "earning" the reward betrays lack of understanding of
Jesus' meaning(cf.
further on Mt 11:25; 19:16-26; 20:1-16; 25:31-46).(GExpositor's Bible Commentary )
(Bolding added)

O the things of this world are a
will-o'-the-wisp,
Having values that tarnish and fade;
But true treasures of joy with abundant reward,
Are the ones which in Heaven are laid!
—G.W.

He weighs things well, and makes
decisions wise,
Who keeps eternity before his eyes!—Bosch

A B Bruce - If we take the
for (gar) as giving a reason for the previous statement the sense
will be: you cannot doubt that the prophets who suffered likewise
have received an eternal reward (so Bengel, Fritzsche, Schanz, Meyer,
Weiss). But we may take it as giving a co-ordinate reason for joy = ye
are in good company. There is inspiration in the “goodly fellowship of
the prophets,” quite as much as in thought of their posthumous
reward. It is to be noted that the prophets themselves did not
get much comfort from such thoughts, and more generally that they did
not rise to the joyous mood commended to His disciples by Jesus; but
were desponding and querulous. On that side, therefore, there was no
inspiration to be got from thinking of them. But they were thoroughly
loyal to righteousness at all hazards, and reflection on their noble
career was fitted to infect disciples with their spirit. Were
before you are words skillfully chosen to raise the spirit.
Beforeyou not only in time but in vocation and destiny. Your
predecessors in function and suffering; take up the prophetic succession
and along with it, cheerfully, its tribulations. (The
Expositor's Greek Testament)

Note carefully that Jesus is neither
encouraging Kingdom citizens to seek persecution nor is He advocating
retreating, sulking or retaliation.

Guzik - Why will the world persecute them? Because the values and
character expressed in these Beatitudes are so opposite to the world’s
manner of thinking. Our persecution may not be much compared to others,
but if no one speaks evil of you, are these Beatitudes traits of
your life? (Commentary)

Prophets(4396)
(prophetesfrom pró=
before or forth +phemí=
tell) refers in the present context to those persons in the OT who spoke
under divine influence and inspiration foretelling future events or
exhorting, reproving, and admonishing individuals or nations as the
ambassador of God and the interpreter of His will to men. Hence theprophetsspoke
not their own thought but what they received from God, retaining,
however, their own consciousness and self–possession (cf 2Peter 1:21)

Before(4253)
(pro) in this context refers not to place but time and thus those
who were prior or before you in time.(See
2 Chronicles 24:21; Neh 9:26; Jer 20:2; cf. Matt 21:35; 23:32-37; Acts
7:52; 1Th 2:15-note).

Who does this bring to mind
in Genesis? Remember righteous Abel murdered for the sake of his righteous
sacrifice! And he was just the beginning of the list of godly believers
in every era that followed...Noah ...Abraham ...Moses ...Samuel ...David
(by Saul) ...Isaiah ...Jeremiah ...Daniel ...Peter ...Paul ...John
...the rest of the apostles ...and of course Jesus Himself. Genuine
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (and light, see noteColossians
1:13)
have never been very popular with those who belong to the kingdom of
darkness of this world.

The Old Testament
prophets were regarded as heroes to the Jews (cf 2Chr 36:16; Mt
23:29-36; Acts 7:51, 52, 53; James 5:10).

Pritchardemphasizes
again what most of us are already too painfully aware of "True believers have never been
popular with the people of the world. Our righteousness intimidates
them, our boldness annoys them, our refusal to participate in their sin
infuriates them, and our love for God mystifies them. Because they don’t
understand us, they hate us. Because they hate us, they oppose us. We
seem like subversives, dangerous enemies who must be hunted down and
destroyed. In the words of John Calvin, “We cannot be Christ’s soldiers on
any condition but this, that the world will muchly rise up against us
and pursue us even until death.”
(ibid)

The fact that the world persecuted
the prophets should also motivate us to endure to the end. We are
members of an elite corps. We have joined the ranks of godly men and
women who counted it a privilege to lay down their lives for their God.
And when we suffer for Christ's sake, we can know beyond a shadow of a
doubt that we belong to Him.

One of the best commentaries on the
persecution of the prophetes is found in the "hall of faith" chapter of
Hebrews, chapter 11, where we read that "others experienced
mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were
stoned, they were sawn in two (tradition holds that this was the manner
in which Isaiah entered into glory), they were tempted, they were put to
death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not
worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the
ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did
not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better
for us (is this not a clear motive for endurance in present
persecution!), so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
(Heb 11:36-40- seenotesHebrews
11:36;11:37;11:38;11:39;11:40)

In summary, why
will the world persecute citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven? Because
they truly manifest the values and character expressed in the
Beatitudes, traits that are so radically counter to the world's way of
thinking and doing. Your persecution may not be much compared to others
(you may not be stoned to death, just slandered), but if no one ever
speaks evil of you, then you have to ask "Are Jesus' Beatitudes
genuinely present in my life?" If not, you may not be a member of the
Kingdom of Heaven.

It is interesting
that in Jesus' stern warning at the end of His sermon, He does not state
that it is those who have been persecuted for His Name who must depart
from Him but those who prophesied in His name, cast out demons and
performed miracles but failed to do the will of His Father. (Mt 7:21,
22, 23-seenotesMt7:21;22;23)

So here in this last
beatitude our King alerts his loyal subjects that they would face trials
but He comforted them with the assurance of a great reward. F. B. Meyer
speaks of one of the other advantages of persecution for the sake of
Christ writing that

“﻿If I am told that
I am to take a journey that is a dangerous trip, every jolt along the
way will remind me that I am on the right road.﻿”

Many saints down through the ages
have counted the cost and were willing to pay the price of the "jolts of
persecution", among them men likeJohn
Chrysostom, whose name means "golden mouthed" and who was an
eloquent, uncompromising voice for the cause of Christ. But His rhetoric
against sin offended the Empress Eudoxia (an oxymoron for her name means
something like "good glory"! Not!). When Chrysostom was summoned before
Emperor Arcadius, and was threatened with banishment unless he ceased
his Bible centered preaching, he replied as one who knew Who Whom he had
believed and was confident that his King could guard and keep safe that
which he had entrusted to Him. And so he answered

"﻿Sire, you cannot banish me, for the
world is my Father’s house.﻿”

“﻿Then I will slay you,﻿” Arcadius
said.

“﻿Nay, but you cannot, for my life is
hid with Christ in God,﻿” said Chrysostom

“﻿Your treasures will be
confiscated﻿” the Emperor threatened again.

“﻿Sire, that cannot be, either. My
treasures are in heaven, where none can break through and steal.﻿” said
John.

“﻿Then I will drive you from man, and
you will have no friends left!﻿” was the final, frustrated threat to
which John replied...

“﻿That you cannot do, either “﻿for I
have a Friend in heaven Who has said, ‘﻿I will never leave you or
forsake you.﻿’”

Chrysostomwas
banished for taking a firm stand for righteousness, first to Armenia and
then died on his way to a farther place of exile on the Back Sea,
passing immediately from his momentary light affliction into his eternal
weight of glory far beyond all comparison. But neither his banishment
nor his death disproved or diminished his claims. The things that he
valued most highly not even an emperor could take from him.

Youmay have heard
their names before,Hugh
Latimer,Nicholas
Ridley and Thomas Cranmer. We will meet them someday soon so it
behooves us to know their story and be encouraged by their willingness
to suffer for Christ's sake.

Nicholas Ridley had been raised
Catholic but converted to Protestantism. Hugh Latimer became a great
preacher and Ridley helped author the Book of Common Prayer. During the
Protestant persecution by Queen Mary ("Bloody Mary") of 1553-55, both
men were arrested and condemned to be burned at the stake. As the flames
were being lit, Latimer cried out to his fellow-martyr,

Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and
play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in
England as shall never be put out.

Thomas Cranmer watched them die in
agony. At one time he had been the Archbishop of Canterbury. Later under
great pressure he recanted his evangelical faith. But watching his two
friends die seemed to give strength to his soul and a few months later
he was condemned to die at the stake. As they lit the flames, he placed
his right hand into the fire to show his tormentors that he was not
afraid to die (cf "a sign of destruction for them" Php 1:28-note).
(For more detail seeHugh
Latimer, Bishop and Martyr)

As the Romans
attempted to obliterate Christianity, one of the early church fathers,
Tertullian noted that every time the church was persecuted, it seemed to
grow faster and thus he concluded with a famous quote...

“The blood of the
martyrs is the seed of the church”

History has proved
the truth of his words. Whenever dictators have tried to destroy the
church, Christ has used the blood of his followers to water the seed of
the gospel. Just look at the evangelical growth in China that followed
Mao's attempts to abolish Christianity and replace it with Communism.

Joseph Tson,
a Romanian pastor who stood up to the brutal dictator Ceausescu's
repressions of Christianity, wrote

This union with
Christ is the most beautiful subject in the Christian life. It means
that I am not a lone fighter here: I am an extension of Jesus Christ.
When I was beaten in Romania, He suffered in my body. It is not my
suffering: I only had the honor to share His sufferings. (cf Acts 5:41)
(A Theology of Martyrdom)

If you have time and want further
encouragement (especially if you are currently undergoing persecution)
you might consider reading some of the accounts of "a noble army, men
and boys, the matron and the maid," "climbed the steep ascent of heaven,
'mid peril, toil, and pain" as recorded in the classic workFox's
Book of Martyrs.It
has been said that

"After the Bible
itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as
theBook
of Martyrs.
Even in our time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of
persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance,
as well as a source of edification."

Must I be carried to the skies
on flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
and sailed thro’ bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
to help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;
increase my courage, Lord;
I will bear the toil, endure the pain,
supported by Thy Word.﻿(play)
(Isaac Watts)

When was the last time you were
persecuted for the sake of the Name above all names?

What have done in the last month
that has caused anyone to challenge your faith?

When have youriskedspeaking
out in favor of righteousness?

How have you defended the cause of
Christ and the purity of the gospel?

><>><>><>

F. B. Meyerin
his bookBlessed Are Yewrites...

MARTYRS AND
PROPHETS"Blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness" sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," etc.--Matt.
5:10-12.

THIS beatitude completes the octave,
but there is no special reason why our Lord should not have finished
with the seventh, because the eighth is altogether so different to the
foregoing. They rather deal with character, this with condition; they
with the internal quality of the Christian soul, this with its external
relation. So far as we understand the first seven, they might be
developed in the spirit, apart from all the world beside, immured in
some secluded not to apart from the world; but this indicates that our
Lord's conception for His Church was that it would be constantly in the
midst of the world; not of it, but in it; and therefore in perpetual
collision and antagonism with its evil.

He seems to have been sketching His
own life. These beatitudes tell the story of our Saviour's personal
life, as, indeed, it is the story of His life as developed step by step
in the believer's heart. They are therefore objectively and subjectively
historical. They are objectively historical, for we know that our Lord
Jesus was poor in spirit, emptied Himself, mourned and wept for the sin
of man; was meek; hungered and thirsted for righteousness; was merciful
and pure in heart; and that He came to make peace. All these qualities
in our Saviour's experience brought Him to the Cross--brought Him into
collision with the evil of the world, and in three years to Calvary.
Thus the beatitudes afford a true history of the progress of our
Saviour's life from the emptying of the incarnation to the laying down
of His life for men.

They are also true of each one of us.
We begin by being poor in spirit, broken in heart, and lowly in mind. We
pass through phase after phase of added knowledge of God and of His
truth; and as we do so we approximate always more and more to the climax
of the Cross, and just in proportion as we are like Christ in the
attainment of these lovely qualities, we become like Him also in our
suffering and sorrow even to death.

How clearly our Lord Jesus Christ
predicts the effect which these qualities will have upon the world. It
is as if He said, " It is impossible for you to be thus and thus without
incurring a very avalanche of hate, but in the midst of it all, you may
retain the blessed placidity and rest which I have promised. There is no
need that the benedictions which I have already uttered to those who are
merciful and meek and pure in heart, should forsake you when you stand
at the stake or are nailed to the Cross, for the blessed life is
altogether independent of outward circumstances; it may be deeply seated
and rooted in the soul when all without is in turmoil and war."

One of the Scotch martyrs, when they
were putting the faggots at his feet, said, " Methinks they are casting
roses before me." Another of the martyrs, when he was about to die,
said, " I was glad when they said to me, Let us go into the house of the
Lord." And it is said of the great Argyle, that when his physician felt
his pulse, as he laid his head upon the block, he could detect no
fluttering, but the quiet steady beat of health and peace. Since, then,
the qualities our Saviour characterized in the beatitudes were
inevitably driving Him and all His followers into collision with the
world, it was very delightful and beautiful of Him to say, " In the
midst of all this you may be blessed; yea, you may rejoice, your heart
may leap and bound with exceeding joy." And the more we think about it,
the more sure it seems that all those who died for the faith had some
special grace given which enabled them to be more than conquerors, and
it will come still to those who are accounted worthy to suffer for
Christ amongst men.

Let us notice, first, why we are
persecuted; secondly, the manner of the persecution; thirdly, the
blessedness which is possible amidst it all.

I. THE CAUSE OF PERSECUTION

It is twofold. First we are "
Persecuted for righteousness' sake," and then He says, " And shall
persecute you for My sake." Evidently men must feel that His cause was
righteousness; that He was the righteous Servant of God, and that
righteousness was no longer an abstraction or sentiment, because He had
embodied it. This is a great distinction, and makes it so much easier to
suffer for Him. It is well enough to suffer for a cause, the cause of
justice, truth, and righteousness, but how much better to think of
suffering for Him! It is an inspiration to realize that righteousness is
Christ, and that whenever men suffer for righteousness they do really
suffer for Him who is the Prince of Righteousness and the King of Truth?
Wherever there is right in the world for which men suffer, the cause of
Jesus Christ is somehow implicated in it. But how wonderful that Jesus,
at the very beginning of His ministry, a Nazarene peasant, standing amid
a number of peasants on the Mount of Beatitudes, should identify the
cause of righteousness with Himself in this marvellous combination. "
For My sake," He said.

Now why is it that the world hates
and persecutes us for His sake? There are just these reasons. First,
that the more there is of Christ in us, the more we condemn the world,
and there is nothing the ungodly man so dislikes as to have the
search-light of unsullied purity flashed in upon the workings of his
heart and life. Jesus Christ is to the ungodly what the sun at noontide
is to the diseased eye; what the bounding joyousness of the child is to
the weakened nerve. And hence it is in proportion as we are living in
the power of Jesus Christ, and are bringing to bear the influence of our
character and life upon other men that they wince beneath the impinging
ray; they shrink from it; it causes them pain, and they turn naturally
in indignant hatred on those who have thus inflicted upon them
suffering.

Secondly, the more there is of Christ
in us, the more we offend the pride of men and women around, who desire
to have the admiration which we have, or which true godliness has, but
which they are not able to win, through their inability to pay the price
for it. Hence jealousy and envy immediately begin to work. Remember how
Aristides was hated, because he was always called " The Just." Men who
were notoriously unjust envied him the love of his fellow-citizens. And
so there will always be a great jealousy on the part of the ungodly
toward those who love Christ.

Thirdly, the Christ-spirit in any one
of us is always aggressive, and compels us to attack the vested
interests of wrong-doing. The Lord Jesus never contemplated that His
children should go quietly through the world exerting only a negative
influence. He expected that there would be a constant positive effect
proceeding from His Church, that, like salt, it would sting. But when
the craft is in danger, when the receipts fall off, we naturally rouse
the indignation of those who suffer in consequence. The search-light
brought to bear upon the diseased conscience, the constant feeling that
the Christian possesses a character which the ungodly cannot emulate,
and which wins an admiration they cannot receive, together with the fear
that worldly position and possessions are threatened by the progress of
the Christ-spirit--all these things tend to make men.

And yet the source of hatred really
lies deeper than all this. It seems as if there is a malignancy of
hatred in evil against the good which cannot be perfectly explained by
any of these reasons, and which must be attributed to that eternal war
and hatred which exist between Satan and all his legions, and Jesus
Christ and the armies of heaven. There is a great war in the universe, a
fire raging beyond the range of our sight, and we may be pretty sure the
signs of it will break out whenever we manifest on earth something of
the purity and beauty of Jesus Christ our Lord. These are the causes of
persecution.

II. THE FORMS WHICH THIS
PERSECUTION TAKES

Our Lord characterizes it in three
distinct ways --first, in word; secondly, in act; and thirdly, in
imputation of evil. In word men reproach us; in act they persecute us;
in imputation of evil they " say all manner of evil against us falsely
for His sake." We need hardly dwell upon this. We know something of the
hiss of the serpent. We have all suffered more or less from the unkind
word. We know what it is for stories to pass round and round, for we
ourselves have been only too prone to take them upon our lips and pass
them forward. The word and the act, how many have suffered, how many are
suffering? Think of the eight hundred Quakers--to take one of the
smallest religious sects--who in the reign of Charles II. suffered for
their religion, and the one million pounds exacted from that body in
payment of fines for conscience' sake, and of all the countless numbers
who have suffered for the cause of Christ.

And then as to the imputation of
evil. I do not think any of us should shrink from it. We are very
anxious about our character, but if we live close to Christ, men will
impute to us all manner of evil. They will impugn our motives,
misrepresent our actions, and circulate malicious stories about us. The
nearer we live to Christ the more certain it is it will be so; that if
they called Him Beelzebub they will call us the same. My belief is that
we should be very careless about these things, and that the only time
when we should defend our character should be when aspersions on it may
injure the cause of Christ; that as far as we are concerned we should be
content to lose our character and be counted the offscouring of all
things.

When these reports are circulating,
and these stories being told, and these unkind words being hurled from
lip to lip, we should immediately turn to our Master and tell Him we are
content to suffer with and for Him. Ask Him to intercede for and to
vindicate us, if it is His will we should be vindicated, and if not, to
give us grace to suffer patiently and wait. We are so eager to stand
well; we are so sorry if the least thing is said against us; we are so
irritated if we are misunderstood and misrepresented; we are so anxious
to write the explanatory letter to the paper or the private individual.
It is a profound mistake. We should be content to trust God with the
aspersion, to leave to Him our vindication, and meanwhile to plod on,
doing our work quietly day by day, as in His sight, only being more
tender and thoughtful and careful of those who have done us wrong. That
is the true Christian spirit.

III. THE BEATITUDE

Why is it that we are blessed, and
how does the blessedness come? The Master says that they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake have the kingdom, and that was the
very promise with which He commenced this series of Beatitudes, "
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It
would almost seem, therefore, as if we had come back to where we
started, but it is not quite so. It is quite true that the poor in
spirit have the kingdom, and that those who are persecuted have the
kingdom, but we must remember that just as steps in the spiral staircase
always come back upon their starting-point, but upon a higher level, so
we come back to the kingdom, but upon a higher level than we were when
we started with the poor in spirit, and it may be that this series is
constantly repeating itself in higher rounds. It may be that we shall
begin to-day, by poverty of spirit, to climb up the spiral staircase
toward this eighth beatitude, and then starting again from this eighth
beatitude we shall pass, so to speak, through a higher series, passing
through the same notes but in another key. We shall never get away from
mourning, only we shall mourn for deeper reasons. We shall never cease
to be learning the lesson of meekness, but it will be a deeper down
meekness than ever before, one that dyes our very heart fibre. We shall
always be seeking purity, but we shall have new conceptions of purity,
and as we know these things in a more perfect degree we shall be
persecuted more, and so every time we will come back and back and back
to where we started, but higher up. Persecuted for righteousness' sake
and yet possessing the kingdom.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was looking
over the wall of time; there were patent to Him things which none but He
knew of. In the tenth verse He speaks in the past tense, but in the
present tense in the eleventh verse. " Blessed are they that have been
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven," as if at that moment He saw all the spiritual witnesses to the
truth of God who had suffered from the time of Abel, and He says, "I see
them, and they have already entered upon the royalties of the eternal
world, and sit on thrones and judge;" and then turning to His disciples
He said, " Blessed are ye when men shall revile you: for your reward is
great in heaven." In future, when we are persecuted, I think it will
help us if we seek to look into the future, as Jesus did, and realize
the greatness of our reward, for every reward that we receive in heaven
will carry with it greater opportunity of blessing in the ages that are
yet to be. That was why the Lord spoke about thrones. The thrones on
which we are to sit imply that we shall be able more widely to help
those needing help; to serve God more efficiently; to minister before
Him, and carry His blessed gospel, perhaps to regions of the universe
where it has never been heard. We shall indeed be blessed if the
persecution of this world shall make us more fit to serve and minister
in the next.

Notice how the Lord Jesus puts the
martyr upon the same footing as the prophet. He said, " So persecuted
they the prophets," as if the martyr were a prophet. It is a profound
thought, but a very true and deep one. The prophet stood among his
fellows witnessing to the unseen and eternal; the martyr or the sufferer
does the same. So that the fagots on which the martyrs of Christ have
been burnt have lighted up the souls of men almost as much as the words
of prophets have done, and have cast a glow upon the centuries. Prophets
witness to the unseen and eternal by their words, sufferers do it by
their agonies. If we, day by day, are willing to suffer for Christ in
the workshop or in the home, we are drawing aside the veil of the unseen
and eternal, through our fiery trials people are catching a glimpse of
the faith and heroism and strength of Christianity, and we are
witnessing to the reality of things unseen by ordinary vision, but which
animate us to endure.

To Thee, my God, I flee, to hide from
the rebuke and hate of men, who daily pursues, oppresses, and wrest my
words; hide me in the secret of thy pavilion, I entreat Thee, from the
strife of tongues.F. B.
Meyer. Blessed Are Ye